Manny Ramirez tested positive for a banned drug and the Dodgers lose him for 50 games.
The suspension will cost Ramirez $7.7 million, or roughly 31% of his $25-million salary. Players in violation of baseball’s drug policy are not paid during suspensions.
Ramirez is expected to attribute the test results to medication received from a doctor for a personal medical issue, according to a source familiar with matter but not authorized to speak publicly.
The Dodgers informed triple-A outfielder Xavier Paul this morning that he was being promoted to Los Angeles.
I guess Manny won’t be opting out of his contract after the season. Paul is off to a very good start at AAA this year, but he’s no Manny Ramirez. Then again, maybe Manny’s not really Manny after all.
Thanks to Matt Hudlow for the link.
Update: Here’s Will Carroll at BP (subscription required, I think):
Two sources confirm for me that Ramirez did not test positive for an anabolic steroid. What the substance was remains unclear. The press release from MLB indicates that it was not a “drug of abuse” or a “stimulant,” the other two classes of banned substances. Ramirez’s positive test came during Spring Training, which follows his story that he received the substance from a doctor this January.
Massive speculation on my part. It was HGH. Not an anabolic steroid, not a stimulant, not a drug of abuse. Doctors in the past were very willing to prescribe it. It supposedly doesn’t show up in tests, however.
Update: Via The Big Lead, Canseco on Ramirez earlier this year:
Why didn’t Ramirez get a long-term deal? Canseco asks. Why were owners gun-shy about signing arguably the game’s best hitter?
Never mind that Ramirez was asking for a mega-deal at age 36. Or that he was negotiating in a sickly economy, while weighed down by the heavy baggage of a surly reputation. Canseco will have none of it. To Canseco, the drawn-out negotiation, the lack of a long-term deal, the lack of interest all raise red flags, and so he tells the Bovard crowd that Ramirez’s “name is most likely, 90%,” on the list.
Canseco admits later that he has no way of knowing. But it makes sense to him, so he threw it out there — kaboom! — swinging for the fences, still.
It’s going to be great fun watching Hall of Fame inductions over the next 10-15 years if BBWAA voters continue to slight anyone who has been connected to PDAs.
I sympathize with those players, as a class, for the lack of process they’re receiving.
But Manny in particular? He’s fun to watch hit, that’s for sure, but the countless ways in which he has quit on his teams have drained any sympathy I might have for him here.
So it seems, that Pujols is the only great non-cheating hitter left in our time. I hope that doesn’t change. Like Simon & Garfunkel sang, “Where did you go, Joe Dimaggio?”
Arrrggghhh. Dammit.
Mike “It’s going to be great fun watching Hall of Fame inductions over the next 10-15 years if BBWAA voters continue to slight anyone who has been connected to PDAs.”
Public Displays of Affection are a problem now?
/jk
Don’t you hate it when Canseco is right.
Actually, rbj, I was talking about Personal Digital Assistants. I can’t stand this post-game twittering!
Although honestly, watching ballplayers grope or twitter would be more offensive to me personally than PED use. I could care less. It’s becoming more and more obvious that it is and has been a completely level playing field. Just in a different way than we hoped.
If I see an article that says Shakespeare has been ghost writing Manny’s life, I wouldn’t be surprised.
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